Saturday, May 12, 2007
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon unveiled on Friday two reports on the situation of children in Somalia and in Uganda, voicing concern over the use of child soldiers there.
In his report on Somalia, the secretary-general estimated that more than one third of the victims who were killed and injured in fighting there in 2006 were children.
The recruitment and use of child soldiers by Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and other armed groups is a significant concern, he said.
In the Uganda report, he urged the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army to take immediate steps to end child recruitment and the use of child soldiers, and to immediately release all children to child protection agencies.
UN statistics show that more than 250,000 children continue to be exploited as child soldiers in over 30 conflicts around the world.
Source: Xinhua, May 12, 2007